64 History of Nature. [BOOK VIII. 



that fortnight's Sleep to fatten them with. Being now 

 gotten abroad, the first Thing is to devour a certain Herb 

 named Aron, 1 to loosen their Intestines, which otherwise 

 were grown together ; and they prepare their Mouths and 

 Teeth with the young Shoots of Brambles. They are subject 

 many Times to Dimness of Sight, for which Cause especially 

 they seek after Honeycombs, that the Bees might settle on 

 them, and with their Stings make them bleed about the 

 Mouth, and by that means relieve the Heaviness which 

 troubleth their Eyes. Bears are as weak in the Head as 

 Lions are strong in that part ; and therefore when they are 

 chased hard, and ready to cast themselves headlong from a 

 Rock, they cover their Heads with their Paws, as with 

 Hands, and so throw themselves down. And often in the 

 Arena they are deprived of Life with a Blow on the Ear with a 

 Man's Fist. In Spain it is believed, that in their Brain there 

 is a poisonous Quality ; and if it be taken in Drink, it driveth 

 Men into a kind of Madness, as if they were Bears : in proof 

 of which, when they are killed in the Shows, they burn the 

 Heads. They also walk erect on their two hind Feet : they 

 creep down from a Tree backward : when they fight with 

 Bulls their Manner is to hang with all their Feet about their 

 Mouth and Horns, and so with the Weight of their Bodies 

 weary them. There is not a living Creature more crafty, and 

 at the same time foolish in its Viciousness. It is recorded in 

 the Annals, that when M. Piso and M. Messala were Con- 

 suls, Domitius ^E?wbarbus 9 Curule .ZEdile, on the fourteenth 

 Day before the Calends of October, exhibited one hundred 

 Numidian Bears in the Circus, and as many ^Ethiopian Hun- 

 ters. And I wonder that the Chronicle nameth Numidian, 

 since it is known that Bears are not produced in Africa. 2 



1 Lib. viii. 32, p. 57. 



2 Lib. viii. 58. The existence of bears in Africa has been a subject of 

 dispute in modern times, and even Cuvier seems to have entertained 

 doubts as to their being found in that vast continent. But Ehrenberg 

 (Symbolce Physical) says he has hunted the bear in Abyssinia, and adds, 

 that " Forskal has brought tidings of an indigenous African bear." Wern. 

 Club. 



